21
by AvidAuthor
Summary: They have 21 hours to escape. Can they survive?
1. Prologue

It had all started with a note. The paper was curled unassumingly at the edges, ripped and stained. But on the paper, printed in blood, were two words.

 **Help me**

Naru being Naru couldn't help but follow the trail of red which led from the office and to a large mansion a few blocks away that Mai could've sworn hadn't been there before.

The doors creaked open with a groan, and Naru stepped inside with a confidence that only he could muster.

Mai stuck close to Lin, since Naru was walking too fast for her to keep up with. Besides, this tall, intimidating man made her feel some semblance of safety in this cold place.

Then, the doors slammed shut with a crack that sounded like thunder, and a voice dripping with madness boomed out, "you have 21 hours to escape! Use this time wisely!"

And then, silence. Only silence.

* * *

 **A Warning: the pairing is probably going to be Mai/Lin. So if those two aren't your thing, you might want to stop reading now. If you do decide to give this story a try, enjoy.**


	2. Hour 1

Mai found that, much to her embarrassment, she had clung onto Lin's sleeve, her black painted nails digging into the fabric.

She blinked up at him with big frightened eyes as she pulled her hands away, and he sighed and put his hand on her head. The touch was brief, yet Mai felt a surge of comfort, of its-going-to-be-okayness, and her rapid heartbeat calmed a little.

Naru whipped out his phone. The screen illuminated the darkness, and Mai saw her boss's eyes narrow.

"No service," he growled, snapping it shut. That meant they couldn't call for the rest of their team. That meant they couldn't call for help. Naru turned to her.

"Check the doors," he ordered. She did so. She pulled and yanked and tugged, to no avail.

"Locked," she said, wiping her forehead, even though she knew full well that there wasn't a single lock on the door.

It just seemed like a better answer then to say the doors were sealed shut, because if the doors were sealed shut, then that would mean Mai and Lin and Naru were sealed _in_.

Naru turned around, stared at the big empty hall, and without a word, started walking.

* * *

One thing Mai had noticed when she had walked in was now even clearer. It was very, very, _very_ cold. She could see her breath in the air, a little white cloud that quickly dispersed.

With every step away from the doors, it got colder and colder. The only thing that lit up their path was the occasional candle, but the flames were weak and pitiful, and went out as soon as a breeze hit them.

Mai took in the paintings as she walked, and noticed a pattern. In most horror movies, a painting's eyes would move, or a voice would whisper something scary. But these paintings didn't need anything to make them scarier. They were horrifying on their own. Because not a single person in those paintings had a head.

Mai, frightened, glanced down at her watch. They had been walking for a while now. This hall seemed to never end. How long had that voice said? 21 hours? Her heart started thumping loudly, nervously.

An hour had passed.


	3. Hour 2

"Naru!" Mai called softly, tapping the plastic face of her watch with her fingernail. He glanced back at her.

"I know," he said grimly. They had finally reached the end of the hall after what seemed like years. At the end was a very unassuming door. It was made out of what seemed like some kind of wood, with a gold doorknob.

But if there was one thing Mai had learned from her time as a ghost hunter, it was that the things that looked unassuming usually weren't.

Naru put a hand on the doorknob, then hissed and pulled his hand back.

Cold as ice," he said, dropping his hand to his side. "Interesting."

Lin put a finger on the doorknob as well, and then turned his gaze to Naru.

"We shouldn't go in here until we have to," he said softly. Naru nodded, then spun on his heel and opened a door a little ways away. He vanished inside, and Mai and Lin exchanged a weary look before following.

* * *

It was a bedroom. The bed was big and inviting, with fluffy pillows and red sheets. A fire burned merrily in the fireplace. They spread out to explore the room, intent on finding an escape.

Naru investigated the fireplace, a frown on his face as he poked the decorative stones.

Lin tried tugging the small window open, but to no avail. The action only succeeded in knocking loose all the dead insects from the torn curtains.

Mai found herself drawn to the table by the side of the bed. On it sat a lamp that didn't work, a lot of dust (the whole room was dusty), and a book. It seemed it had once been engraved with name, but that had been etched off, and all that remained was the word Diary.

Mai inched closer, ignoring the warning fluttering around in her stomach. Her mind ached with sorrow and whispers, whispers that became screams when she touched the cover.

Mai gasped as a shock ran through her, and then fell to the ground. She twitched once, and then ceased moving.


	4. Hour 3

_I stare with hollow eyes into a dirty mirror, my mouth open ever so slightly._

 _I touch the tender bruise on my neck with long pale fingers, and wince when they find the teeth marks._

 _My hair is long, blonde, sweaty, dirty and tangled. I am pale, far too pale, with ruby red lips. Suddenly, I run to the window, and start pounding on the glass._

 _"Help me!" I scream. "Please! Someone, anyone! Help me!"_

 _But no one comes._

 _I sink to my knees, holding my Diary to my chest, my nightgown flowing around me._

 _I screw my eyes shut, tears leaking from my eyelids, and whisper one last plea._

 _"Help me..."_

 _But no one comes._

* * *

Mai woke up on the bed, sweat dripping down her face. Lin was standing above her, mopping at her nose with a handkerchief. She opened her eyes, he pulled away, and she saw the blood on the fabric.

She brought a trembling hand up to her nose, and felt the blood leaking from it. Lin kneeled down, and felt her forehead.

"You collapsed," he explained, rubbing at her forehead as he tried to detect heat. "You had a fever, but it's broken now." His hand was real and warm, and Mai took it and held it, closing her eyes.

She did not see the look on his face, but by the time Naru walked up to the bed, Lin had pulled his hand away, and tucked any emotion away. Naru frowned down at Mai.

"What did you see?" He asked, uncaring on the surface, but worried deep inside. Mai took a deep breath and sat up.

"I was in the body of a girl..." She said, pushing a sweaty lock of hair from her face. "She was so scared. So, so scared..."

Mai let out a shaky sob, and Naru, uncomfortable with her tears, walked over to the Diary. He opened it quickly, but nothing happened to him, and he looked at a random page towards the end.

On the corner was a verse from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, with some of the words underlined.

 **1996, December 2nd**

 **Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December**

 **And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.**

Beneath was written only one sentence.

 **I never thought Hell would be so cold.**

He frowned. The penmanship was messy and careless, with lots of ink smudges. He flipped back towards the beginning, where the words were much prettier.

 ** _1994, May 7th_**

 ** _It is like the sun does not shine in this place. He stalks the halls._**

 ** _The paintings frighten me, so I hid them under the bed. Yet I swear I can still see them, in my dreams._**

 ** _I_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

A splatter of ink covered the rest of the sentence, and Naru tucked the Diary into his pocket to read later. For now, he started towards the bed with his brow furrowed.


	5. Hour 4

While Naru read the Diary, Mai attempted to stand on shaky legs. She stumbled down, and she was on her hands and knees.

She sighed, and then glanced towards the underneath of the bed. In a moment, Naru was kneeling down beside her, peering into the shadows.

He reached a hand under the bed, and pulled out a painting. It was coated in dust and spider webs, and Mai sneezed as she stood up.

Naru stayed on the ground, and stared at the painting. The woman in it seemed to be a baroness. Her hair was pinned up, her dress was long and severe, and she had a pair of spectacles on the bridge of her nose.

That's where the normality ended, for she held her head in her hands. Her eyes were reversed, Instead of black pupils on white, it was white pupils on black. She had a long nose, and pointed ears. Her fingers were long and spindly, with fingernails as sharp as knives.

He set it down, and Mai took a step back from it, right into Lin. Naru pulled out another one. This one was simply of a bald head. The eyes were rolled back with blood leaking from the sockets.

The mouth was upside down, making the smile a frown. It sat in black shiny goo, soaking in it. He set it down on top of the baroness. Mai stayed pressed against Lin, shaking. She knew these were just paintings, but there was something about them... Naru found the last one, but this was simply a frame. The painting was missing, and in its place was a scrap of paper with a crude face drawn on it.

Hidden in the face were four numbers. The eyes were zeros, the nose was a seven, and the mouth a three.

0 0

(7)

(3)

0073

Naru stood.

"We need to look around more and find what these numbers mean," he said, taking the scrap of paper. "Perhaps a safe, or a password, or-"

Mai swallowed thickly.

"A lock," she whispered.

Naru nodded. They opened the door, and stepped into the hall. When they closed the door, the fire went out.

* * *

They wandered blindly, much to Mai's distress. What if they met someone else? They eventually came to a door labeled **Kitchen.**

Naru opened the door and stepped inside. Lin and Mai followed, the former looking around with a frown, and the latter looking around nervously.

Lin felt for a switch on the wall, and turned the lights on when he found it. They weren't the best lights in the world (they kept blinking on and off), but it was better than nothing.

The kitchen consisted of some surprisingly clean counters, an old wooden table, a rusty oven, and a large refrigerator, which Naru went right for. He pulled its door open, a blast of cold air hitting his face, which twisted with disgust when he saw what lay inside.

"Don't look, Mai," he said softly, but it was too late. Mai felt bile rise up in her throat, and she threw up into the trashcan.


	6. Hour 5

_I am starving. Hunger gnaws at my stomach like some rabid beast, and I stand. I am not the sort of girl who as to have someone help her, though I am weak. I do not need servants to bring me food. I can find my own._

 _I slip from my room, and wander down the halls. Though this is my home now, I have not had the opportunity to explore. Hair flying Behind me, I find the_ **Kitchen.**

 _I open the door, and then peer inside. I have seen the chef before. He is a bald man with hollow eyes, and a strange mouth. He is not here, so I step inside I look around, but there is nothing that intrigues me._

 _I spot the refrigerator, which strikes me as strange. This mansion is very old fashioned, yet here are electronics._

 _I walk over, open the door, and scream. Then there are arms around my middle, catching me when I faint._

* * *

"Mai!" Mai blinked, staring down at her own vomit, and watched as a drop of blood fell from her nose and landed on top of it. Lin shook her shoulder again, frowning. "What's wrong, Mai?" A tear fell from her eye, and she ran at him, pressing her face against his stomach.

While Lin dealt with Mai, Naru turned from the many jars of eyeballs and pulled the Diary from his pocket. He flipped through it until he found a passage speaking about the **kitchen**.

 _ **1994, May 15th**_

 _ **I awoke in the bed after fainting in the kitchen, a platter of food before me.**_

 _ **So horrified was I by the dead eyes staring back at me, I fainted. Someone caught me, it seems, for I have no injuries. Who was it who caught me? I do not know.**_

 _ **Still, this will not deter me from exploring more. Tomorrow I will visit the Library, I think. Wish me luck!**_

He tried to flip to the next page, but it was stuck. Naru glanced at Mai. She seemed to have regained some strength, yet she was still clinging to Lin.

"We must go to the Library," he said, closing the refrigerator. Mai nodded, wiping at her bloody nose with her sleeve.

"Ok," she said determinedly. They left the kitchen, and started down the hall once more. Soon, they reached a large door.

It took both Lin and Naru to open it, and it opened to reveal a cozy little library. Stepping inside, Mai looked around.

A big comfy chair sat in front of a roaring fireplace. The fabric on it was dusty, and Mai saw some dark stains on its cushions. She blanched and backed away, quietly telling herself it was probably just tea.

The shelves of books led up to the ceiling, and Mai stepped up to one and pulled out a random book. She felt the cover, her fingers running along the leather.

She remembered things. Reading Him fairytales, her soft voice too loud in the silence. He never spoke, just listened.

Mai knew those were not her memories, but they still writhed in her mind, crying out and weeping. A thought popped into her head, and she walked over to the middle of the bookcase. It worked in horror movies, so why wouldn't it work in this mansion of hell?

She felt the books with her eyes close, and her fingers finally found one not like the others. It was bigger, and when she opened her eyes, she gasped, for the book lit up at her touch. It was a lock disguised as a novel!

"Naru!" She cried. "Look!"

He walked over, and his eyes lit up.

"Good job, Mai," he murmured, taking the scrap of paper from his pocket. Mai shined brightly at the praise, and then looked up with surprise when Lin put his hand on her shoulder.

The corners of his mouth were turned up ever so slightly in an almost smile, and Mai blushed bright red, and then turned to Naru to conceal it.

He pressed each number in (it was a touch screen with numbers 1 through 10 on it), then stepped back. With a great groan, the fire in the fireplace went out, plunging the room into darkness.


End file.
